On 11 July, the feeling was particularly acute. A momentous article appeared in the UK’s Daily Telegraph. It argued that fossil fuels are the new subprime threat to the global economy, doomed to mass stranding underground, with many billions of dollars of investments heading for write-offs.

Meanwhile, it asserted, a solar revolution is rushing up on society under the radar, the standard bearer of a transformative green industrial revolution that can no longer be avoided.

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